Our Heritage:  New STM Press title highlights St. Tikhon’s instructions, teachings

St. Tikhon

Saint Tikhon’s Monastery Press recently released its latest title, Saint Tikhon of Moscow: Instructions & Teachings for the American Orthodox Faithful (1898-1907).

“Saint Tikhon is the father of the contemporary Orthodox Church of America—his vision, his love and his hope,” said Archimandrite Sergius, Abbot of Saint Tikhon’s Monastery.  “By deeply embracing his words, we will enter into his vision which was inspired from above and through his words and instructions we will be empowered to find our salvation in our modern world.”

Born Vasilii Ivanovich Bellavin in 1865, Saint Tikhon was bishop and later archbishop in North America from the end of 1898 until the spring of 1907.  His episcopate was the lengthiest of any hierarch serving in North America between the diocese’s establishment in 1870 and the Russian Revolution.

The volume features Saint Tikhon’s sermons and other writings, newly translated and edited by Alex Maximov and Dr. David C. Ford, providing access to the words of a figure of towering importance for the Orthodox Church in America and in Russia.  His words and sermons form an engaging “archpastoral diary” of sorts, detailing major aspects of Church life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries while detecting similarities and differences between that era and our own.

Alex Maximov is an independent scholar and member of the parish of the Monastery Church of Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk.  Dr. David C. Ford is Professor of Church History at Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary.

The must-read volume is available on-line.